600 quid to spend on PC used for digital photography and internet

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What spec would you buy?

My dad, likes photography as a hobby and is soon to purchase a digital camera (a decent/serious one, not sure which yet).

What PC would you get with 600 quid? What would be the most important parts for a PC used for Photographic editing and word processing and internet browsing?

Thanks for any advice, I sense there are other threads like this one, but started this for it to get up to date technological responses.
 
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You'd want a decent monitor as the main point of call... Also, a big hard drive as serious photography takes up serious room (you'll be shooting in raw so photos take up 5mb+ each and it's fairly easy to fill a 1gb card)

Apart from that you won't need anything too high spec in the way of CPU since it's not really that time critical. Can get away with a not-so-good graphics card too (3D wise I mean)
 
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CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£71.95 £71.95
MB-116-AS Asus P5ND2 SLi nForce4 SLi (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-116-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CD-001-BQ BenQ DW1650 16x16 DVD RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-001-BQ)
£22.95 £22.95
MY-000-PA Patriot Signature 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (PSD21G667K) (MY-000-PA)
£55.95 £55.95
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£64.95 £64.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£45.95 £45.95
MO-043-SA Samsung SM-920N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-043-SA)
£154.95 £154.95
CA-052-AN Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN)
£34.95 £34.95
Subtotal £511.60
VAT £89.53
Total £601.13


Something along these lines, could get a cheaper graphics card to lower the price a bit and try to fit 2gb of RAM into the budget.
 
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Raikiri said:
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£71.95 £71.95
MB-116-AS Asus P5ND2 SLi nForce4 SLi (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-116-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CD-001-BQ BenQ DW1650 16x16 DVD RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-001-BQ)
£22.95 £22.95
MY-000-PA Patriot Signature 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (PSD21G667K) (MY-000-PA)
£55.95 £55.95
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£64.95 £64.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£45.95 £45.95
MO-043-SA Samsung SM-920N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-043-SA)
£154.95 £154.95
CA-052-AN Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN)
£34.95 £34.95
Subtotal £511.60
VAT £89.53
Total £601.13


Something along these lines, could get a cheaper graphics card to lower the price a bit and try to fit 2gb of RAM into the budget.

yes looks good, might try swapping the graphics for ram indeed.

edit:

anyone able to suggest what graphics card i could lower to without affecting performance when photo editing.
 
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Raikiri said:
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£71.95 £71.95
MB-116-AS Asus P5ND2 SLi nForce4 SLi (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-116-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CD-001-BQ BenQ DW1650 16x16 DVD RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-001-BQ)
£22.95 £22.95
MY-000-PA Patriot Signature 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (PSD21G667K) (MY-000-PA)
£55.95 £55.95
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£64.95 £64.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£45.95 £45.95
MO-043-SA Samsung SM-920N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-043-SA)
£154.95 £154.95
CA-052-AN Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN)
£34.95 £34.95
Subtotal £511.60
VAT £89.53
Total £601.13


Something along these lines, could get a cheaper graphics card to lower the price a bit and try to fit 2gb of RAM into the budget.
Looks good, are you sure about the ram though, PC5300 :confused:
 
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If i remember rightly... Matrox probably make the best 2D cards (output quality etc...) but they are pretty poor for 3D as they've pretty much given up trying to compete in that market :)

Your best bet might be to try a digital photography forum, specfically any with a lot of DSLR users. However, if your dad is just starting out then he shouldn't worry too much about colour reproduction etc...
 
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Nobski said:
Looks good, are you sure about the ram though, PC5300 :confused:


Certain...DDR2 motherboard, DDR2 RAM

Can always OC the CPU as they are well known for their ability to overclock and the ram is easily fast enought o run 1:1 with relatively tight timings or 2:1 for extra bandwidth up to 166FSB (3.32ghz).
 
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Mortah said:
However, if your dad is just starting out then he shouldn't worry too much about colour reproduction etc...

You see, that's the key. He's just starting out. So he doesn't need the most amazing computer ever. Personally i'd get a MacBook, and then he can always take it with him wherever he goes. If he needs more RAM, external hdd, external tft, then they can be bought.

If the OP is a student then they could get the base MacBook for £643, and it would be really good :)
 
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Raikiri said:
Certain...DDR2 motherboard, DDR2 RAM

Can always OC the CPU as they are well known for their ability to overclock and the ram is easily fast enought o run 1:1 with relatively tight timings or 2:1 for extra bandwidth up to 166FSB (3.32ghz).
He could do but is a dad going to want to do this, I know mine would`nt so maybe PC3200 speed run at stock cpu / fsb and 1:1 might be better ;)


Oooooh, 250 posts :D
 
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Nobski said:
He could do but is a dad going to want to do this, I know mine would`nt so maybe PC3200 speed run at stock cpu / fsb and 1:1 might be better ;)


Oooooh, 250 posts :D


Or run the PC5300 at 1:1, it doesnt matter! It doesnt cost any more and the slowest DDR2 easily available is PC4200 anyway.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Corsair_Value_Select_DDR2_709.html

There we go, slower ram and £5 more. what is the point? Plus you will find hard to get PC3200 DDR2 anyway.
 
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Raikiri said:
Or run the PC5300 at 1:1, it doesnt matter! It doesnt cost any more and the slowest DDR2 easily available is PC4200 anyway.

I see, not up on DDR2 memory and the price does seem good, just thought that faster speed rated memory would have a slower cas rating but its not going to make a big difference in this case :)
 
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To be honest my dad can barely use a PC and after some thought, he would just get even more confused trying to navigate a MAC i think, even if they are better for this kind of thing.

It'll almost certainly have to be a PC I think.

Does everyone reckon 1GB of RAM is ok for photoshopping then?
 
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tbh photo editing requires 2 things. Memory and big fast hard disks

everything else will pretty much do as all graphics cards perform more or less the same unless performing 3d acceleration in something like computer games or 3d modelling / CAD etc..

my advice would be to buy a dual core system (no preference as to which both P4 and A64 perform well for this sort of thing) buy 2gb of ram and get yourself a nice fast hard disk. Western Digital SE16 seems to do well in tests, and i love mine (not that im biased :D) and the rest is up to you. Go for the cheapest graphics card you can find, if your only photo editing and internet they're all the same

as for monitor, just dont choose a cheap one. A viewsonic / samsung one would do nicely.

Maniac618 said:
Does everyone reckon 1GB of RAM is ok for photoshopping then?


yes but if you wanted a task that would see benefit from 2 gigs of ram, it would be photoshopping large .raw images.

Been as the rest of the spec is so loose (ie only photo editing and internet) id compromise elsewhere to get the 2gb of ram in your budget. like graphics card for example.

building a spec for this sort of thing is so easy, as in computing terms they're quite undemanding tasks of a sytem.
 
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ok thanks a lot guys, RAM and hard disk it'll be.

I'll let you know what I went for in the end when I get round to sorting the spec with my dad.
 
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Maniac618 said:
To be honest my dad can barely use a PC and after some thought, he would just get even more confused trying to navigate a MAC i think, even if they are better for this kind of thing.

I take it you haven't used a Mac then? They are a lot easier for people to learn how to use. My parents picked it up very quickly, and the whole experience will be a lot more enjoyable for him.
 
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Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-075-WD)

is that a good drive, anyone know? it's 500gb at 7,200rpm sata 2
 
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Matt said:
I take it you haven't used a Mac then? They are a lot easier for people to learn how to use. My parents picked it up very quickly, and the whole experience will be a lot more enjoyable for him.

come now lets not turn this into an osx / PC debate

we could be here all week arguing over the pros and conns of pc vs mac.
 
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Here you go.... a touch over the budget but a very good rig for what it will be used for:

MB-101-AB Abit SG80 SiS 661FX Micro ATX (Socket 775) Motherboard (MB-101-AB)
£33.95 £33.95
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£71.95 £71.95
MY-092-CS Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS)
£139.95 £139.95
HD-002-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£52.95 £52.95
CD-033-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£24.95 £24.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£56.95 £56.95
MO-043-SA Samsung SM-920N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-043-SA)
£154.95 £154.95
Subtotal £535.65
VAT £93.74
Total £629.39

Mobo has onboard gfx.
 
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